A Whitehorse native who opted to help children in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake at a time when her peers were getting set to graduate from high school has lessons to share with Yukoners. Among them is be patient to see true, worthwhile results.

That’s Morgan Wienberg, who has lived in the Caribbean country for just shy of a decade and has returned to the city this week for a rare, long visit.

“Living in Haiti the last eight years, there’s a lot of challenges in the country – but I have seen very incredible progress especially in the child protection domain,” Wienberg told the Star this week.

“I would’ve told myself to focus on seeing what I was doing as a long-distance race instead of a sprint.”

That reflection will make up part of her work this week as Wienberg returns to where her journey first began.

En route to graduating from F.H. Collins Secondary School in 2010, Wienberg explained she wanted to help in any way she could after the earthquake. So she asked for a ticket to the Caribbean nation to go and volunteer.

With plans to head to university in the fall, that blueprint changed shortly after as she opted to return to the country instead – and she hasn’t looked back since.

“I ended up basically never leaving,” she laughed.

Throughout a number of events this week, capped off by an art auction in the city on Thursday, the Yukon native will detail her work with Haiti orphanages that led to co-founding Little Footprints Big Steps, a child protection organization.

It works with those who have been mistreated, neglected, abused or trafficked and are involved in “corrupt orphanages.”

Wienberg’s main focus is and remains family reunification.

With emotions often running high, she’s learned over the years that patience can bode her well.

“Even in emergency situations, which happens a lot with children in distress, you still have to consider there’s a long-term intervention – like how is it going to affect the child long-term.”

While she acknowledged that immediate action on the part of authorities and governments can help, “it’s also important to establish certain structures.

“Like focus on doing things well and making all the right connections and not just focusing on doing it quickly,” Wienberg said.

That can play out as simply as who puts food on the table from the child’s eyes, as it can undermine the parent’s authority, she added.

“The child sees you as their caretaker (and can) have less respect for the parent, and the parent feels less capable,” which can translate into the parent taking less responsibility for the child.

Little Footprints Big Steps encourages parents to set up small businesses, plant gardens and the like through a number of partnerships.

“So many people don’t understand how awful the orphanage system is, how awful institutionalization is for people.”

Wienberg added an uphill battle can take place when several NGOs fund orphanages on the ground that they may not know is engaging in questionable practices like trafficking, something she saw firsthand.

“Or that it’s actually helping perpetuate a cycle of exploitation for those kids.

“People (should) focus on funding community development or family-based solutions instead of institutions.”

There are signs of light at the end of the tunnel, though.

The country partnered with groups like Bethany Global to launch a foster care program in 2015, and has since more generally admitted that there is a need to close some 140 orphanages as soon as possible because of poor conditions.

The foster care program aims to work with local churches in the country to recruit families, as the government predicts that about 80 per cent of children in orphanages have at least one parent who is living. That may be a startling figure, given that an estimated 30,000 children live in those sites.

Some reports, like one from 2017 authored by children’s charity Lumos (which is founded by British author J.K. Rowling), point out some misleading information as those who fund orphanages “are increasingly referring to their orphanages as ‘family-based care.’”

That’s even though “most of the important features of family life are absent and an institutional culture prevails within them.”

While these efforts that try to help can lead to frustration from people, Wienberg added, it may not serve well to rebel against authorities.

“If we don’t work with them, how will we ever create change on a national level or create lasting infrastructure or improve anything?”

Plus, she added, the upper echelons are likely a different bunch from those that work on the ground with children.

“The social services agents who are government workers who I work with, are just so incredibly committed that it’s incredible.

“Sometimes they go six months without being paid and they’re at work everyday – if there’s not a vehicle available and they get calls from a four-year-old, they go by foot.”

Visitors and those coming into the country can also do their fair share.

“You see quite often foreigners coming into the country, picking up kids and taking them places or taking them home which is child trafficking,” Wienberg noted.

“You wouldn’t do that in a different country, pick up kids without having some legal authorization.”

While no doubt rewarding, she noted her work can take a toll on even those most committed to it.

“I personally have learned the importance of self-care, and for many years I neglected myself and really obsessed about doing work and had no balance,” she said.

“It took years and years of running myself down before realizing (I should) introduce some balance.”

What keeps her going is seeing the well-earned, life-changing results.

“It’s all about removing yourself and removing your own ego and inspiring people, motivating people, show them what they’re capable of.”

The organization is hoping to see construction this year to expand its office space and having it ready for the fall, with Wienberg’s long-term vision to eventually build a pediatric hospital.

To support this, a fundraiser will be held Thursday evening at the Westmark Whitehorse Hotel ballroom.

The Art to Heart event will include a sneak preview of the full feature film currently under production that details Weinberg’s work.

She and others of the Whitehorse-based film crew will be on hand, with Gary Bremner portraits also scheduled. A crew has been working on the film for at least five years now.

There will be live music, youth creating art pieces on site, snacks and a cash bar at the event. It runs from 4:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. and tickets are available at BrownPaperTickets.com or at 334-3928.